Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire North American T-28 Trojan

Hard to believe my fortune in being able to learn to fly in this classic radial. Loads of fun and great memories.

I fly an RC model of this plane. Beautiful aircraft. One of my all-time favorites. The tricycle landing gear in particular makes landing far easier than with a tail dragger. Thanks for sharing.

I was a crew chief on those in 1964 at Udorn and Vientienne. Operation Waterpump was a real "Terry and the Pirates" operation, complete with spook pilots with thick German accents, civilian clothes with no dog tags, aircraft with one country's insignia one day, another country the next, then no insignia at all. Interesting times for sure. Wish now I had taken more pictures.

Pictures would likely not have been "encouraged" - just as they were frowned on for us at Ban Me Thuot flying unmarked O-2s in plain clothes.

Lovely little light attack craft, those T-28s.

A lot of pilots were trained in these things at the air base in Biloxi MS.

Always thought they were a fun plane to fly.

That looks like fun.

A time long ago, while attending college......flyers were posted about campus advertising "free flights" courtesy of the USMC at the local airport. I talked my room mate into making a trip to enjoy a "free flight"!

Once we got a orientation class on what was expected of us during the flight, we were escorted out to the ramp where 2 T-28's were standing by to get us into the air. It was fun, it was exhilarating, never felt the need to use the "chute" but on several occasions almost made use of the "bags". I recall the flight lasting about 45 minutes. Once our flight concluded, we made it back to our dorm in a daze......absolutely worn out! As I recall, we slept the rest of the afternoon to recover!

Didn't join up and I guess it was a good thing. Found out a few years later when taking a flight physical for the Army that I had a red green color deficiency and my medical profile would not have been a "picket fence"
medical required to be accepted into WOFT or as a USAF pilot. A nice memory, anyway!

I got to fly “B’s” around Hawaii for almost three years.in the mid-70’s. At one time I think we had seven at NAS Barber’s Point (no longer an NAS) for everyone attached to various staffs to get 100 hours to maintain their flight pay.

I was lucky enough to get over 650 hours in them and really lucky I didn’t take myself out one day when I flew up a blind canyon. Not enough room to turn or do a wingover or accelerate for a loop. Fortunately I knew the “max climb angle airspeed” (IIRC,110 kts) and cleared the very end by maybe 50’. I was trying sit really light for the last quarter mile or so. I think I even raised my butt off the seat as I was clearing the trees. 😮 That was the end of my “flat hatting” days.
I took lots of photos and Super 8 movies that I need to have turned into CD’s one of these days. 1400 horsepower can be kinds fun😊 Getting used to moving three controls (throttle, mixture and rpm) vs. just a throttle took a little while for a jet jock but pretty soon it became second nature.

On occasion, I would climb up to 20,000’ or so on the “blower” and cruise around at about 150 kts indicated but getting about 250 kts true airspeed/ground speed. I was doing that one night getting some of my required night time. There was almost no radio traffic and I got a call from Honolulu Center..
“Navy 663, center”
“Go ahead Center.”
“663, Center, are you breathing gaseous oxygen or LOX?”
“Center, 663, It’s gaseous.”
“Oh, ok, we were just curious and nobody down here knew what kind of system you had.”

They're very popular any more. One went down this week with in CA an engine failure. The guy did everything right and walked away.

The fuel bill is bad enough on what I fly!

Pugs, I bet it costs a bit to fix that.

In 1971 I was talking to a man who had just rebuilt his F4F Wildcat radial engine to the tune of $20,000 and had his plane for sale for $40,000. The rebuild is probably 5-10 times that now.

Use to see T 28s at Pope AFB all the time in 67 & 68.....we saw a lot of stuff going to and from Vietnam... or people training to get ready to go to Vietnam...

Monogram use to make a Quarter Inch Scale T 28, set up for Counter Insurgency....

I bet I build 100 plus of those as a kid in High School...guys that flew them, were going to fly them in Nam... or
just wanted one to put behind their desk at the office...on an AFB.....Friends of my dad at TALC on Pope of JFKSpecial Warfare Center where my mom worked...

Built a few at the Smithsonian for displays when I worked there also...as a Junior and Senior in High School...

those and the Skyraider were a lot more Popular than the Tweetie Bird... T 37.... just Saw one of those at the Air Museum
at March AFB at Riverside, just yesterday.... boy was those things low to the ground siting on their landing gear....

Back when they were trying to decide between models and toys and it had working gear, sliding canopy. Built a few myself! (Still liked the Monogram B-58 and it's amazing folding gear and dropping bombs and working hatches)



Rocky flew those in his post-FAC tours and rightly blames his hearing loss on the flying dog whistle.

Yup. Flew the Tweet for almost five years in total. Twice a day, often. Here's why my hearing is shot at higher frequencies. (I showed this clip to the VA audiologist, and his first comment was, "What color hearing aids do you want?")

Here's a 40-second clip. The camera is 100 feet away. I sat an arm's length from the intake. The final five seconds is what I hear all the time as tinnitus...

Yes, that ought to give you tinnitus.

My Dad trained in the T-28 at Greenville Mississippi in about '53. He tells the story of a night flight, dropping down low on the Mississippi River and turning on his landing light to mess with a barge. It was all good until the barge captain hit him with his spotlight. All he could do was pull up and wait for the blindness to fade. The captain called the base later and reported it. Dad got reamed pretty good but he said the blinding was a lot worse than the reaming.

That’s funny!

When I was a kid, my dad was stationed at Keesler AFB from 68 - 69 to attend an electronics school and T-28's were something I saw and heard almost every day. They were training pilots for the South Vietnamese AF, they'd make passes over the base housing area where we lived (usually gear down as they were in the pattern to land), pass over and circle out over the Back Bay to land. On base there was a very short pier that jutted out into the bay very near the end of the runway that we'd fish from and I'd wave at them as they came into land , most times the back seater would wave back (instructor I think ?).
I was able to get down on the ramp a couple of times and several times the crew chiefs would let me sit in the cockpit, what a thrill for a 9 year old kid.
Later in life my neighbor when I lived in the UP was retired AF, he was originally trained as a recip. engine mechanic and served a tour in Laos working on the various planes that the "Ravens" flew; he had seen the T-28's pretty shot up by AAA and said that they were remarkably durable and made a for a very good attack aircraft.
OrangieOkie, thanks for sharing the video, it brought back some good memories.

StarchedCover

FWIW, the Air Force version, the T-28A, had a "reduced" HP engine of about 800hp (compared to the Navy version T-28B/C) with an output of 1425 hp.


Clic pic for details

Navy probably had to train with more power for MUCH shorter runways in the pilots future.